My favorite example are sites which require you to opt out of hundreds of third party processors individually (advertising partners who may receive data). That's as dark a pattern as it gets.
It's also in clear violation of how opt-out is actually supposed to work, at least in the EU.
And with the Do Not Track header, I shouldn't even have to opt out in the first place. A GDPR decision to that effect could solve this banner madness once and for all.
I don't remember the exact timeline but MS decision to enable DNT header by default was basically a poison pill for the entire concept before it had a chance. It would have failed one way or another though. Adtech industry doesn't give up that easily.
That's the argument I've heard from the ad industry, but I don't really buy it. Previously, the DNT header was missing by default, so it's presence could be seen as user intent to forbid tracked, while its absence is ambiguous. Afterwards, the DNT header was present by default, so its absence could be seen as user intent to allow tracking, while its presence is ambiguous. That's exactly what should be the case should be, where only explicit consent to be tracked counts.
Safari/Chrome/Firefox enable by default some ad-blocking today, just like they disable popups or screen for phishing sites.
The whole "users didn't opt in" thing was a false narrative manufactured by the ad industry. You don't need to ask a customer to disable bad behaviors without asking.
"Let's ask these bad actors to play nice, I'm sure they'll respect that, I mean, they probably think we all want to be tracked so let's just tell them we don't and it'll all be fixed. And make sure the option isn't obvious enough that normal people start to use it and ruin the whole thing".
> And with the Do Not Track header, I shouldn't even have to opt out in the first place. A GDPR decision to that effect could solve this banner madness once and for all.
Enforced DNT is part of the ePrivacy Regulation, which was supposed to launch alongside GDPR, but got delayed. Expect it to arrive somewhat soon.
With DNT on, Medium actually behaves differently! When viewing an article with embeds (like an iframed YT video), each embed is replaced with a small privacy warning, then clicking it loads the embed.
My favorite example are sites which require you to opt out of hundreds of third party processors individually (advertising partners who may receive data). That's as dark a pattern as it gets.
It's also in clear violation of how opt-out is actually supposed to work, at least in the EU.
And with the Do Not Track header, I shouldn't even have to opt out in the first place. A GDPR decision to that effect could solve this banner madness once and for all.